Epstein appears to be going for page views as he’s broken the list up into parts. This is only Part 1 of the list.

Absolutely, the HTC One is a beautiful phone. Hopefully HTC will be around for a shot at the Best of 2014 lists, but that’s not guaranteed.

The iPhone 5s no doubt suffered in the design category because of it’s expected “s” update is seen as an evolutionary (as opposed to revolutionary) 2013 design; when I saw the One, I thought that it looked like the mythical big-screen iPhone.

The display category at this point seems unnecessary: all handsets from the major players have gorgeous screens.